ALL THE POSTS

The Oberon update landed in Albion Online yesterday, along with news that the game is going free-to-play in just a few short weeks, but we're willing to bet money that no one has really cleared enough content in that update to say that they're done with it. It just got here, after all. But the developers...

If you missed Anthem's developer livestream yesterday, you'll be forgiven; it's hard to find in between every dang site's constant barrage of Stadia news. Ahem. Anyway, it had a few tidbits worth noting!
According to transcripts of the stream, BioWare is planning to roll out patch 1.0.4 next week if all goes well. It'll include fixes for several...

As with the larger video game market, sequels aren't unknown in the MMO space. We've seen studios take a stab at following up successful earlier efforts with follow-ups (such as Asheron's Call 2 or EverQuest II), and the modern trend of MMO-lites have produced sequels as well (just see The Division 2 or Destiny 2).
But...

If you were wondering exactly how Apex Legends stacks up against Fortnite since the former's debut earlier this year, SuperData's February 2019 global revenue report is where you want to point your eyeballs. EA's new shiny entered the PC list at #6, just behind Fortnite, and the console list at #4, just behind both Fortnite and...

Here's a fun question to ask yourself when you're doing basically anything in an MMO: Why am I doing this? It's usually at once a very easy question to answer and a very difficult one.
In one sense, for example, it's very easy to understand why you're in this Flashpoint in Star Wars: The Old Republic. In character terms, a...

RIFT players are having a bit of a wild ride the last few weeks. First, Gamigo announced it was nuking the game's progression server, which had been running only since 2018 and never even made it past the first expansion. Then Gamigo confirmed that it's planning a battle pass, but it didn't tell anybody what's actually...

Developer CCP Games currently holds the world record for the largest PvP battle in gaming history, which was awarded in recognition of January 2018’s 6142-player Siege of 9-4 in EVE Online. The studio wants to push those numbers higher, and recently partnered with Hadean to put on an EVE-themed live demo of its Aether simulation engine...

Hellooooooo, ladies.
I'm gonna set aside my rant about how I feel about online games that deprioritize female characters for years of testing and just get on with the fact that hey, they're here now in Star Citizen. In Star Citizen's alpha 3.5, that is, after quite a bit of delay, as they were meant to launch last year....

The process of rebuilding the social and non-combat sandbox MMO Glitch has been a slow one. It's been one that attracted a deep well of talent, though, as multiple separate revival projects were in the works to bring the game back in a big way. Among them were Children of Ur and Eleven, both working separately to...

What does it mean for a game to be challenging? That's the question that the Pantheon devs tackle in their latest dev diary. While many games choose to focus on technical challenge -- for example, testing players' reaction times or ability to input complex button combinations -- Pantheon is taking a different route, putting "less burden on nimble...

Monetization is always a tricky topic in MMOs, especially when it comes to microtransactions, but that's just the territory that Project Gorgon devs are trying to navigate right now, as they've just opened up the first iteration of the Project Gorgon shop, and the current offerings are... interesting.
As of this writing, there are three "Kickstarter-like" packages available for...

Sometimes people do things that are dumb in MMOs. We know and accept this. Sometimes people think that dancing on a mailbox in World of Warcraft is still fine or Leeroy Jenkins jokes are still funny or whatever. Again, that's fine. And then sometimes you have your tank at level 120 and in decent gear stand in the obviously...

No, your mind isn't slipping and the Matrix is not glitching; Guardians of Ember has just gone into open beta. Again. You might recall that this is the second go-around for this hack-and-slash MMO, this time helmed by Gameforge after Insel Games was knocked off Steam over review manipulation.
Gameforge is enticing players with candy to crawl...

On a list of unpleasant things occurring to players in any MMO, "getting your character deleted while you're still playing" is probably near the top of that list. It was also something that started happening in AdventureQuest 3D, much to the surprise of the game's development team. The good news is that the problem has been fixed, the better...

How is it that there's a gigantic new space MMO with a dozen playable races, starship combat, exploration, trading, and even hacking on the market without this being top-billing news? Probably because Starmourn is a text-based MMO with rudimentary ASCII visuals.
But don't let that stop you from giving it a look! Ever since going into open...

When Outlaws of the Old West describes itself as being in early access, it means early access. That's why it has patches like the most recent one, which fixes a number of bugs and issues like making crouching actually quieter in terms of movement. It also changed several lighting effects, fixed issues with tools damaging interior structures, fixed issues...

Freebies! Who wants freebies? Get them while they're hot! Get them while your inventory still has space!
Oh, hello, I see you heard my call. Step into my parlor and select from my fine free wares. Would you like a Lord of the Rings Online compensation package? It contains many figments of splendor, dyes, XP boosts, and buffs...

Sea of Thieves is turning one year old today and getting an anniversary patch. Today's patch is not the anniversary patch, however. That's coming "a little further down the line." No, today's patch is going to tide you over with content, including a set of new mercenary voyages, birthday goodies in your inventory and in the cash...

Welcome back to another round of the MMO Business Roundup. It's GDC week, so it's no surprise that we've had so many business posts coming across our desks!
First up is Disney, which as PC Gamer reports has apparently brought back Lucasfilm Games. Don't get excited or panicky just yet, though; it doesn't really look as if Disney...

I have mixed feelings about TennoCon 2019. Don't get me wrong -- I am excited as all get out and look forward to going! TennoCon is always an amazing experience; the first one ever got me playing Warframe, and each one after has accelerated the excitement with amazing expansion announcements.
However, therein lies the rub: I am also anxious...